In this article you will learn about the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin, which is experiencing explosive growth in internet transactions. You will also learn how you can actually make money 24×7 using your computer, graphics card or dedicated hardware, with only minimal time spent managing your Bitcoin mining operation. Hopefully we can answer your ultimate question: Should I mine bitcoins?

The second most important thing you will learn is that Bitcoin mining is a risky business. The BTC is a highly volatile currency and has experienced at least one panic-driven crash. The future of BTC is not known – will it thrive or will usage fade away to nonexistence? Will governments swoop in to regulate and control its use – even stamp it out completely? Will Bitcoin mining continue to be profitable in the future?

So, at the end of the day you ask yourself, should I get involved with Bitcoin Mining? The answer as they say, can only be answered by yourself. If you enjoy a technical challenge and you are not afraid of risking a few bucks, then yes, Bitcoin mining may be for you. If you think it sounds exciting to be a part of possibly the biggest sea-change taking place in the history of modern fiat-currency based monetary systems, then its a big YES.

Now that you know a little about the opportunity and risks, what is Bitcoin itself? Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin’s currency code is BTC, and the commonly used currency symbol is a capital B with two vertical bars through it, as seen in the symbol for the Euro. Bitcoin is one of the first implementations of a concept called CryptoCurrency, which was first described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list(ref Bitcoin wiki, see Appendix A).

There are a number of places to spend Bitcoin and many common products and services can be purchased with it. There are exchanges for trading BTC against many major currencies. Perhaps most compelling, is that Bitcoin transactions are absolutely anonymous and untraceable.